The burning of the straw and the risks of ecological modernization, attempts at regulation in the State of São Paulo

Abstract

In 2012, in the context of the clash in the revision of the Forest
Code (Law no. 4.771/1965), we attempted to analyze the situation of burning straw, in Decrees and Laws, promulgated in the State of São Paulo, in an attempt to regulate this practice, the period of 1980-2011. In this paper we present results of the analysis of the content of the material selected. The study sought legal historical reconstruction of the environmental regulation of the burning of straw, to identify possible impacts to the current context, the contributions from current sociological risk society and sustainability perspective. The burning of the straw as a technique and facilitator manual cutting is centenary in Brazil. Over the past 20 years, there is the growing process of environmental concern, the risks to human health. Since the late 1960s through the device of the sole paragraph of article 27, of the aforementioned law, was established control mechanism in use of this technique. Over the past decades, it is possible to observe changes in the jurisprudence of this device, strengthened with the emergence of environmental studies and sociological aspects of the risks of modernization, also backed by scientific research in the health area, which proved the harmful effects of the use of burning of sugar cane. This historical trajectory was used as theoretical framework, the analysis required, the synthesis performed by LENZI (2006) for concepts such as: a) Ecological Modernization (EM) b) Sustainable Development (SD), c) Risk Society ( SR). Emphasize the relevance of the study since the framework of estimated production of sugarcane crop 2012/2013 was 422.9 million tons of cane harvested, total of 6.74 million hectares (source - IEA). Therefore, much of the state territory is occupied with this type of cultivation and there is still a burning technique for the preparation of agricultural crops.